THE WORLD TO COME: PART II How Can I Secure a Front Row Ticket? n the first Morasha class on the World to Come, we saw that life after death is Ifundamental to Jewish thought. We presented the two phases of life after death: the transition of the soul into the World of the Souls, and the return of the soul to the body during the Resurrection. We discussed the concept of the World to Come as a place where one enjoys the level of personal perfection and closeness to God that one achieved in this world. In this second class we will discuss how each person can earn a share in the World to Come. Finally, we will address why explicit mention of the World to Come is omitted from the Written Torah. In this class we will address the following questions: What can we do to ensure that we get a place in the World to Come? Do non-Jews have a place in the World to Come? Why is there no explicit mention of the World to Come in the Torah? Class Outline: Section I. How to Earn a Share in the World to Come Part A. Mitzvah Observance Part B. Torah Study Part C. Specific Acts Rewarded in the World to Come Part D. Good Character Part E. Core Beliefs and Attitudes Part F. Non-Jews Section II. Why Is There No Explicit Mention in the Torah? Part A. It’s Obvious Part B. Trivialization Part C. Correct Motivation Part D. Falsifiability 1 Spirituality & Kabbalah THE WORLD TO COME II SECTION I. HOW TO EARN A SHARE IN THE WORLD TO COME Some people focus strictly on life on this planet and do not entertain the concept of life after death, or a soul world. In the following case, the New York Times buried a time capsule at the turn of the millennium filled with memorabilia from our civilization for those in the year 3,000 to look back on us, much the same as we look back on those from the Year 1,000: Who – or what – will open the Times capsule a thousand years hence? Correct predictions are considered the ultimate test of the hard sciences like physics and chemistry. For those of us in the so-called soft sciences – like historians, evolutionary biologists, and stock-market investors – our predictions are constantly derailed by independent variables and the impact of unpredictable events like assassinations or asteroid collisions … Today, for the first time in human history, we could all be done in at once by a nuclear war, an environmental catastrophe, an epidemic that flashes around the globe or some entirely unforeseeable calamity. Even so, while prediction may be difficult, it is possible to sketch out several alternative scenarios about who will open the capsule. New Yorkers The simplest scenario is one of business as usual, one that assumes that there will be no worldwide disaster to undermine civilization. In that case, I confidently predict the continuing primacy of the same underlying geographic factors that made the United States and Europe the powers of the present world. Those factors are their large areas, environmental diversity and resilience, rich natural resources, relatively stable climates, historical inheritance, and efficient population concentrations – of which New York, site of the Times Capsule, remains the foremost manifestation. New Zealanders What could halt business as usual? One obvious possibility is a nuclear war ... Nuclear conflict, for all its horror, might not kill everybody. Still, bombs or fallout might destroy every big city on every continent. The only targets that no one will bother to bomb are remote oceanic islands. Their populations will most likely survive, but they will face a problem: almost all of those remote islands are formed of volcanic lava or coral; they are completely without metal deposits. Perhaps there will be enough salvageable scrap metal, but if not, the island populations could, imaginably, relapse into the Stone Age. Only New Zealand has metal deposits and is sufficiently large and populous to retain books and knowledge of metal technology. Whoever those post- nuclear New Zealanders are, it is they who in this scenario would eventually visit the bombed-out and lifeless continents, poke around in the ruins and discover and open the Times Capsule. Japanese There is another type of catastrophe, even more likely to halt business as usual. Already, today, we live amid an accelerating environmental calamity as we destroy the world’s remaining natural forests, wetlands and fisheries, pollute its air, soil, and water and approach the limits of our planet’s photosynthetic capacity. It already seems likely that all the accessible supplies of fresh water will before long bump up against the needs of the growing world population – even if that growth rate continues to slow. The way things are going now, we may not have many decades left to get our environmental act together. If we fail, then most of the world, including not only the continents but also New Zealand and other habitable islands, could come to resemble barren Somalia today. Over the last several thousand years, humans have already exhausted the world’s major shallow iron and copper deposits, which stone-tool users of the remote past dug up to develop metal tools. The remaining major ore deposits are deep, and their extraction requires high technology far beyond the organizational capacity of Spirituality & Kabbalah 2 THE WORLD TO COME II scattered and stateless human groups to reinvent. With only salvage metal on hand, much of humanity would be reduced to the state of hunter-gatherers. Who, in that case, would be best off? That’s another no-brainer: it would be the same ones who were already best off in the Neolithic era. Living in the world’s most productive temperate environment of high rainfall, fertile volcanic soils and mild climate, the Japanese led the world’s hunter-gatherers millenniums ago as early developers of pottery and permanent villages. For those same reasons, Japanese hunter-gatherers would be likely to once again lead the world’s hunter-gatherers in 3,000. Like stone-tool-using Polynesians of the past, those Stone Age Japanese would build oceangoing canoes, venture across the seas, reach New York and stumble across the Times Capsule. (From Jared Diamond, To Whom It May Concern, www.nytimes.com, December 5, 1999.) A civilization whose goal is to reach some distant future date must consider which factors such as natural resources, technology, and survival skills best prepares it to do so. However, Judaism’s conception of the World to Come has nothing to do with calendar years, which only exist in this world. In contrast, preparing for the World to Come – a dynamic eternal existence beyond this world – is not dependent on such factors. Rather, the ability to reach the World to Come is accomplished by involvement in such pursuits as perfecting one’s character, helping others, studying Torah, and performing the mitzvot. And the Talmud relates that this is the potential for every Jew: 1. Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud) Sanhedrin 90a – The default position of every Jew is that he will have life in the World to Come. כל ישראל יש להם חלק לעולם הבא. .All Israel have a portion in the World to Come Exactly how big that “portion” will be essentially depends on our connection to Torah and mitzvot, and the extent to which we refine our character and help others, a sampling of which is illustrated below. PART A. MITZVAH OBSERVANCE The mitzvot (generally translated as commandments) were given by God to the Jewish people as the comprehensive framework within which to live a Jewish life, and enable each person to build a personal, meaningful relationship with God. The mitzvot are the means by which we can emulate God, develop and refine our character, strengthen Jewish belief, and infuse every action with purpose. (See the Morasha class, The Mitzvot and Why They are Detailed). 1. Rabbi Osher Chaim Levene, Set in Stone, p. 31, Targum – Each mitzvah we fulfill intrinsically connects us with God. Judaism is not as much a religion as it is a relationship. It is only through mitzvah observance that man can build a deep, enduring, and meaningful relationship with God … That a mitzvah is the very process of forging the bond [with God] is contained within the very word ”.meaning a “connection” or a “binding ,צוותא commandment,” closely related to the word“ ,מצוה 2. Talmud Bavli, Sotah 3b – One’s mitzvot accompanies him to the World to Come. א”ר יונתן כל העושה מצוה אחת בעוה”ז מקדמתו Rabbi Yonatan says, “If one performs a mitzvah והולכת לפניו לעוה”ב שנאמר )ישעיהו נח( וְהָלַךְ לְפָ נֶיךָ in this world, it precedes him into the World to צִ דְ קֶ ךָ . Come, as the verse states: “His righteousness will go before him” (Yeshayahu/Isaiah 58:8).” 3 Spirituality & Kabbalah THE WORLD TO COME II 3. Talmud Bavli, Avodah Zarah 4b– Mitzvot testify on our behalf in the World to Come. אמר ריב”ל כל מצות שישראל עושין בעולם הזה באות Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said, “All mitzvot that ומעידות אותם לעוה”ב. the Jewish people perform in this world will come and testify for them in the World to Come.” 4. Rav Yosef Albo, Sefer HaIkarim 4:40 – Observing the mitzvot, unlike any other system of law, offers eternal life. ושמרתם את חקותי ואת משפטי אשר יעשה אותם And you shall observe My statutes and My“ האדם וחי בהם, וזה בלי ספק ידבר על השכר הרוחני ordinances, which man shall do and thereby הפרטי לכל אחד ואחד על זה הדרך, כי הוא היה live” [Vayikra/Leviticus 18:5].